Audio Book Review: Silicon Dawn

Silicon Dawn

By:  William Massa

Publish Date:  April 28, 2015, Audiobook Release December 29, 2015

Format:  Audiobook - 3 hrs 53 mins
Narrated By:  Joe Hempel

Genre:  Sci Fi

Series:  0 in Silicon series

First Impression:  Mechs are produced to do human jobs. But some humans are not happy about it.

Synopsis:
A SILICON MAN PREQUEL

THE LINE BETWEEN MAN AND MACHINE HAS BEEN CROSSED...
AND THERE IS NO TURNING BACK.

A serial killer stalks the city of the future…
Hunting the people who build the machines.
And it's up to a cop and an AI to unravel a terrible conspiracy.

The world is still reeling form the devastation of the Omega Virus and struggling to rebuild. A growing android workforce has given rise to the Human Defense League and anti-AI sentiment is at an all-time high.

Adam, one of the first of the new X-3000 models, arrives into this hostile future. Field-tested on the Luna colonies, now assigned to Earth, Adam is paired with homicide detective Jane Malveaux, who has little patience for synthetics.

Before long both Malveaux and Adam must cast aside their differences and join forces to solve a case that will test both man and machine.

Note: This prequel can be read before or after Silicon Man.

First Sentence:
The San Francisco Spaceport bustled with activity.

Purchase At:
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My Thoughts and Summary:
*I requested to review a copy of this audiobook for an honest review from the author or narrator.

Inspector Jane Malveaux is already not fond of the mechs for personal reasons, but when her partner is killed at a homicide crime scene because of Adam's presence, Malveaux believes the robots should not be on the police force. Malveaux is put on the case of a killer. They find there are more murders of cyberneticists. It's going to take more than electronics to find the sick killer on the loose, and that's where Malveaux comes in. Adam is here to learn and prove that mechs can help. Paired as a team, Malveaux and Adam need to work together with what makes them who they are to solve the case, each bringing a different view to the case.

Joe Hempel narrates this story with a clean background and seamless chapters. He does softer tones for Malveaux, being female, and stronger tones for the males. He expresses the feel of what Adam is saying with tones that fit the moment, giving Adam a bit more feel to his in-humanness, as he grows and becomes more human to us. There is, however, one sentence that is repeated toward the end of the story (**which Audible is fixing**), but if that is all I can find wrong, we are doing great.

The 1st chapter is set up with people's responses to the mechs that are created to resemble humans and are everywhere. There is a lot of strong feelings and the first few chapters express the views of both sides of the coin for us.

We see the mech Adam grow in his ways. He uses cues to react as he thinks should be done with people in different circumstances. He also struggles with why humans would act with such cruelty and brutality in being serial killers. Adam, after a nice talk with the Captain, decides to stay on the case and maybe he can find other patterns besides emotions to help solve the case. As the story goes and we get Adam's view in the story, we start to see he's more human than many think. Adam has views on the world, opinions in a sense. Like when he sees pleasure mechs, he doesn't really approve of them. He sees death early in his arrival on Earth and it seems to affect him. Adam keeps surprising us with his kindness and gestures of human type feelings throughout the story. Even Malveaux is surprised at times at Adam's actions and helpful ways on the case.

We are on a mystery case where the cyberneticists were killed a month ago and left with parts of mechs and messages from the bible and for humankind. I had a feel for how everything would turn out, but was curious as to how the positions of the dead bodies would relate to the killer. In the end, William makes the connection for me. And it worked! I was impressed with the relation and story telling here as it was a bit different.

This is a shorter story, but it's packed full of important information pertinent to the story. No wasted time on unneeded scenes. The lower key scenes are important for character growth, but they are extremely short. We spend 99% of the story moving through the mystery.

If you like stories that are similar to I Robot the movie, this is really a story for you! The world and interaction is very similar.

This story ends on a note that sets up the world for a new potential future. Good or bad is yet to be seen, but the technology could be used either way. Now I'm more curious as to what the future holds with the technology present and mechs.



**If you found my thoughts helpful, please click Yes at Amazon and/or Audible. Thank you!